A HUNT FOR THE NIGHTINGALE 79 



says the chaffinch ceases to sing the beginning of 

 June, I took more courage, for I had that day heard 

 the chaffinch also. But it was evident I had no 

 time to lose; I was just on the dividing line, and 

 any day might witness the cessation of the last 

 songster. For it seems that the nightingale ceases 

 singing the moment her brood is hatched. After 

 that event, you hear only a harsh chiding or anxious 

 note. Hence the poets, who attribute her melan- 

 choly strains to sorrow for the loss of her young, 

 are entirely at fault. Virgil, portraying the grief 

 of Orpheus after the loss of Eurydice, says : — 



" So Philomela, 'mid the poplar shade, 

 Bemoans her captive brood ; the cruel hind 

 Saw them unplumed, and took them ; but all night 

 Grieves she, and, sitting on a bough, runs o'er 

 Her wretched tale, and tills the woods with woe." %^:>. If', 



But she probably does nothing of the kind. The 

 song of a bird is not a reminiscence, but an antici- 

 pation, and expresses happiness or joy only, except 

 in those cases where the male bird, having lost its 

 mate, sings for a few days as if to call the lost one 

 back. When the male renews his powers of song, 

 after the young brood has been destroyed, or after 

 it has flown away, it is a sign that a new brood is 

 contemplated. The song is, as it were, the magic 

 note that calls the brood forth. At least, this is 

 the habit with other song-birds, and I have no 

 doubt the same holds good with the nightingale. 

 Destroy the nest or brood of the wood thrush, and 

 if the season is not too far advanced, after a week 



